A variety of silicone-modified novolak resins are known in the art. Many documents including JP-A S58-122922, for example, describe novolak resins in which phenolic hydroxyl groups are silicone modified. With these structures, the characteristics of silicone compounds are outstandingly exerted because the characteristic of phenolic hydroxyl group which is one of characteristics of novolak resins is excluded. Another class of silicone-modified novolak resins includes siloxane-modified novolak resins having a conjugated double bond as described in JP-A H03-97710. Since the siloxane modifier used in this document is an organopolysiloxane having hydrosilyl groups at both ends, intramolecular and/or intermolecular bonds are formed, posing limits to molecular motion. In addition, since the resin has a conjugated double bond and an epoxy group within a molecule, the low stress characteristic of silicone is compromised despite good mechanical properties after final curing. Also, novolak type phenolic resins which are silicone modified by block copolymerization are known from JP-A H05-59175, for example. Since they are obtained from copolymerization of telechelic novolak resin with telechelic polysiloxane, they have the drawbacks that preparation of such intermediates is cumbersome, and the alkali dissolution rate is slow because of the structure containing polysiloxane in the backbone. It would be desirable to have a novolak resin having a high alkali dissolution rate and low stress.